Grow Your Email List: 10 Ideas You May Not Have Considered

If your business has an email list, chances are you’ve spent some time pondering how to grow it. Standard advice is to make a prominent web form and offer a hook (i.e. eBook download) to pull in leads. Those are solid tactics, but if you are looking for additional options to grow your email list, here are 10 ideas you may not have tried:

Use text messaging to grow your email list

If you have speaking gigs, take advantage of a plugin like MobileChimp to help you grow your email list. MobileChimp integrates with MailChimp and will allow people to join your list through text message.

Social Media About Section

Call attention to your email list in the About sections of your social media profiles on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn which allow for longer descriptions.

Pinterest

Pin an image of your eBook cover, webinar, or any other hooks you’re using to grow your email list. Make sure your pin has a link to your sign up page to drive traffic and leads to your site. Don’t forget to add a snappy caption with #hashtags to standout.

Integrate email sign up into every form on your website

If you have forms on your website that allow people to sign up for events, promotions, webinars, contests, etc. grow your email list by integrating email sign up to those forms. You can even program the box to be pre-checked for extra encouragement.

Integrate your sign up form on the top 5-10 pages on your website

You may already have an email sign up form on your website, but how many pages is it on? Increase your odds to capture emails by placing your sign up form on the most popular pages of your web site.

Email Receipts

If you are a retailer offering email receipts make sure to invite your buyers to subscribe to your email list and include a link.eRetailers you should be including a check-box on your online checkout to bring customers onto your email list.

Email Signature

Train Employees to Grow Your Email List

Train your team to talk about the benefits of your email list anytime they interact with a customer. This could be on the phone or in person. Some customers will say no, but some will say yes!

Use a Fishbowl

Anytime you have an opportunity to interact with a crowd bring a fishbowl to collect business cards. This is a great low effort way to collect a list of companies relevant to your business. The fishbowl can be when you’re attending a trade show, running an event or a daily occurrence for those that have a brick and mortar location.

Don’t be afraid to offer a giveaway to encourage people to share their cards. But be clear that by giving you their business card, people are signing up for your email list so you don’t get in trouble as a spammer down the road.

Grow Your Email List in a Dead Zone

This one takes a bit of creativity but it could reap big rewards. Think of places where people are likely to be bored but have their phones with them – waiting rooms, car repairs, heck even bathrooms. When people have time on their hands, you have a captive audience and a good opportunity to capture a lead.

What’s tricky about this one is that it may require partnering with another business if you don’t have any dead zones of your own. Partnerships can lead to all kinds of opportunities, so don’t be afraid to explore new paths!

Combine this idea with #3 and use text signs up for a super simple user experience and you could have a whole new source of traffic coming your way.

Nicole Krug is a marketing strategy consultant specializing in digital brand management, social media, web development and email marketing. Since founding Social Light in 2009, she has helped clients hone their digital marketing strategies to bring more exposure to their brands and boost their bottom lines.

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